How to Support Spanish-Speaking Pastors

The greatest missionary of all time is God himself. His love for the lost beats in multifaceted ways: He sent his Son far away from home to a lost, antagonistic world. His Son, in turn, gave his disciples a great commission to spread that love worldwide.

But there is one facet of missions that is hardly ever considered: God’s providential stirrings of migrations to lands where the gospel is more likely to be heard.

The United States has put this particular aspect of God’s sovereignty on international display. Immigration has been a prominent feature of its life from before the states were even united. In fact the United States has far more immigrants than any other country in the world. And one of the vastest influxes has come from from Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Unlike the United States and Canada, Hispanic cultures have felt hardly any impact from the Reformation. In his book, Luces bajo el Almud (Lights under the Lampstand), Justo González speaks of several reformers who came to the “new world” but remained inconspicuous. Except for Casiodoro de Reina (who translated the most widely used Spanish Bible “Reina Valera”), their ministry has been largely overlooked.

A delayed Reformation

However, in God’s good providence Hispanics are now witnessing something like the religious revolution that Europe experienced 500 years ago. The April 2013 issue of Time magazine was entitled “The Latino Reformation,” and it stated that of approximately 52 million Hispanics, it is estimated that half of them will switch from the Catholic to the evangelical church by the year 2030. The Hispanic migration to the US is having a momentous evangelistic impact. Countless Hispanics are embracing the principle of sola scriptura. This phenomenon has altered the very landscape of America: thousands of Hispanic congregations have now either sprouted or taken over church buildings where at one time only English was spoken.

This sizeable, tangible mission field brings with it both challenges and opportunities. Unlike their English-speaking counterparts, most pastors among Hispanics in the US (let alone south of the border) are bivocational, even trivocational. They have to tend to their families, work a job or two, and minister to the flock. And many of them go about their ministry work with minimal bíblical education and training.

Equipping Hispanic pastors

That’s one reason Faithlife has created Spanish editions of Logos Bible Software. We want to increase biblical literacy across the world, and one way we’re doing this is by reaching Hispanic pastors. These pastors can encounter training and study resources such as those found in the Spanish editions of Logos. Through these good books, and tools, Hispanic pastors encounter depths of the world of the Bible that were unknown to them before. They feel empowered to teach sound content without a seminary degree—and to deliver compelling sermons to their flocks. So far, over 30,000 church leaders have been blessed with our tools.

This Pastor Appreciation Month, we’re offering deep discounts on Spanish base packages so we can reach even more people. We hope that others would want to take this opportunity to bless these church leaders.

If your church currently has a Spanish ministry, here is your chance to invest in tools for the Spanish pastor(s). Even if you are called to lead a group of Hispanics without a Spanish pastor, you can benefit from our Bilingual libraries to empower you to share meaningful content.

Remember, when you decide to help a Hispanic leader, you are not only advancing the great commission, you are helping to advance the effects of the Reformation, hopefully for 500 additional years.

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Comments

Besides Reina-Valera Gomez, I’d also recommend Dios Habla Hoy (DHH), which even though it’s not a textual and accurate translation, if the reader is aware of it, and read together with other textual translations, it can also help to understand the Word of God. I don’t think DHH is either in Logos.

For Study Bibles, there is a translation of the MacArthur Study Bible. Also, for commentaries, I’d also recommend Mundo Hispano (a very traditional, orthodox commentary). These can be a great gifts to Spanish speaking pastors, especially if we consider the fact that there is a lot of false teaching going on these days, especially from the Prosperity Gospel and other distorted interpretations of the Word of God.